Our days remain full. It's funny, we said this to each other today and assumed that 3/4 of our time is taken up by finding, buying, preparing or eating food. Ha!
This morning the kids and Marty rode their bikes to the bakery for fresh bread and rolls for breakfast just like an average German would do.
They are serious about their bread here and Marty greatly appreciates it.
He is not a food snob or really picky about anything else but has always had a refined taste for good bread. It must be the German in him.
After purchasing cell phones for Marty and Josie yesterday we headed today to the Vodafone store to set up cell service. Josie was VERY excited. It is a right of passage of sorts to be getting her very first phone. Benjamin was thrilled that there were cell phones in the display store that had games on them. #addicted
Then we take the bus out to Berlin Brandenburg International School. The one and only school that Benjamin has officially been accepted into. We are still holding out hope that he gets in at the last minute to JFK where Josie will be attending and which is just a short half mile from our house. But we have a plan B in place and I know that sometimes plan B's can turn out to as good as or even better than plan A's.
BBIS is out a ways into the suburbs. It is only about 4 miles away but because Zehlendorf is a suburb of Berlin and BBIS is in a town called Kleinmachnow which is a suburb in the state of Brandenburg it takes 2 buses and about 35 minutes to travel between our house and the school. We are mesmerized by the huge villas on our way into town. This area of Germany/Berlin is very nice and fairly Americanized. It reminded us of the uptown area and feel of Kirkland. Not really our style but very very nice. It would be hard to know you were in Germany if you were just plopped right there. We find the school and it is posh. Other than the graffiti sign near the entrance. Both kids noticed it and said - "wow, what a nice school!" very sarcastically.
It is fenced off with security and a reception gate at the entrance. Apparently this is where most diplomats' children go and there needs to be a higher level of security... I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. This is also a boarding school for the older kids. We see the dorm rooms, the really nice gym and campus just through the gates and fence. I'm both less and more nervous about Benjamin potentially going here.
We decide that if he ends up attending that we will pay extra for the private school bus/van. It is reasonably priced (compared to the price of tuition) and would make life so much easier given we will have kids at two different schools. I really, REALLY REALLY hope he gets into JFK but I have resigned myself to be fine with either school. We will make the most of wherever he is placed. It would be a very interesting comparison to have one child at a posh, expensive private school and another at a top rated, German/American public school. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't get to make that comparison!!
I think Marty is trying to say "HOW much is this going to cost us?"
We get home shortly before Marty has to be on the air and for the rest of the day the kids and I play games, then they do a bunch of art and find paddles and a ball in a cupboard and play with that awhile.
New toys in a new house are always more fun than the old stuff they had at home.
One of my favorite things to do in Seattle is cook. Not always as dinner and meals for a family, 3 times a day, sometimes kills the joy and creativity with the perpetuity of it all but I do love my kitchen in Seattle and do love creating healthy, tasty meals. The kitchen here in Germany is the smallest room in the house and easily 1/3 of the size of ours in Seattle. Today I decide to brighten it up a bit with flowers I also tried to create my first real meal, not counting Abend brot which isn't really cooking but rather just putting a bunch of stuff out on the table.
Julie came over and shared in our first home cooked Berlin meal and I got thumbs up all around... even from Benjamin, our picky eater. I can't pat myself on the back too vigorously as we ate about an hour later than normal due to some work meetings Marty had and everyone was "STARVING". In Seattle it was just 10AM but here it was dinner time.
But I'll take the positive feedback nonetheless. I'll have a lot to cook in the coming days as Julie brought over two HUGE home grown zucchinis from her parent's garden. Yum. Another jam packed Berlin day.
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